Gal Gadot and Patty Jenkins were the image of girl power on the 2018 Critics’ Choice Awards red carpet

Gal Gadot was honored at the 23rd annual Critics’ Choice Awards for her work in gender equality, so it was only right that she walked on the red — well, technically blue — carpet with her Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins.

On January 11th, Jenkins presented the #SeeHer award to Gadot at the Critics’ Choice Awards. The #SeeHer award was introduced in 2017 and recognizes accurate portrayals of women in the world of entertainment, as well as the importance of changing stereotypes. It’s given to a woman who embodies these values.

“Gadot broke through this year as a powerful voice advocating for women, not only on screen as the iconic Wonder Woman, but in life as well, using her platform to encourage those in the entertainment industry and beyond to strive for fairness and parity across genders.”

If you look at Gadot’s Twitter account, you’ll see that she and Jenkins have been hitting the awards show circuit together this week at the Palm Springs International Film Festival, the National Board of Review Awards, and the Critics’ Choice Awards. And before Jenkins presented Gadot with the #SeeHer award, these two Wonder Women posed for photos together on the carpet at the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica, California, in a beautiful moment of female friendship.

Once inside, their amazing relationship was even more moving as Jenkins gave a speech about Gadot.

The director said she was “so happy to be here to shine a light on this wonderful human being for using all of those superpowers this year to breathe life, complexity, humanity, joy into a tour de force performance that could have been so much less and still succeeded,” Jenkins said. “But in the hands of Gal Gadot, Wonder Woman came back to life in all of her glory and is out there inspiring the world again.”

You can see Jenkins’ introduction and Gadot’s speech in the video below.

Gadot’s speech was equally emotional and she acknowledged the irony of how a female superhero was able to accurately portray the complexities of women more than many other roles out there for actresses today. Gadot said:

“Throughout my career, I was always asked to describe my dream role. And it was clear to me that I wanted to portray a strong and independent woman — a real one. The irony in this is that later, I was cast as Wonder Woman, and all of these qualities I looked for, I found in her. She’s full of heart, strength, compassion, and forgiveness. She sees wrong that must be made right; she takes action when everyone around her is idle. She commands the attention of the world. And in doing so, she sets a positive example for humanity.”

To make the night even more magical for Jenkins and Gadot, Wonder Woman won Best Action Movie at the awards ceremony — beating out the male-led (and ape-led) action films of Baby Driver, Logan, Thor: Ragnarok, and War for the Planet of the Apes.

In her intro, Jenkins called Gadot “my real Wonder Woman” and in her speech, Gadot called Jenkins “my friend, my sister.” These two continue to prove that women are stronger when they stand together, on or off screen — or even on the red carpet.